classroom fun & good friends

Yesterday was such a fun-filled time. As I said, I attended a Susan Greening Davis class. My friends, Sally and Susan, were there and my lovely mother too. There were a couple of new faces. I had the privilege of meeting another Ohioan named Joanie. She was a delight to sit next to. She and her husband recently moved to the area so I felt it only necessary to bring her under my wing and tell her about the upcoming Moonlight Stitching at our LNS.

Joanie, if you’re reading this, I do hope that you will join us. You will have a really fun time and I’d love to see you again. Remember, it’s Saturday, May 30 from 4:00-10:00 pm and BRING STITCHING!!! If you would like to bring your own drink that is fine too. We usually bring our own even though Pat does supply something to drink ~ some of us girls are addicted to Diet Cokes and Diet Dr. Peppers :o). Hope to see you there, girl!

The Three Wise Men Whitman tin is what I picked for my class project. The other option was the traditional yellow Whitman tin. We also were able to choose coordinating colors as well. Those were two spools of perle cotton and one Watercolours thread. I decided to match mine with the robes of the Wise Men since there was already an abundance of blue in the tin. In class we used a doodle cloth for practice as there were stitches some of us have never stitched before or even seen for that matter - like me.

I also bought a few extra items from Susan. She had these really neat books. One was a stitch guide that stands up. Susan is known for her accuracy of the traditional stitch and/or how the stitch originated and not so much how it is taught today, but how it was taught historically in centuries past. It’s amazing what Susan can teach you!

I also picked up the needle index. How many of us have loose needles lying around and we really have no clue what they are??? (C’mon, be honest! We all have them. ;o) This book is a must have. Each page has a picture of every needle one can possibly own. You hold your unnamed needle to the picture and if it matches you’ve found it. On the facing page is a piece of wool felt attached to the book where you can store that needle for safe keeping. It’s an excellent book. I’m looking forward to going through my rogue needles and giving them a proper home.

I also purchased Susan’s “Orts” chart. I have a glass ORTS jar that I hand painted, but I need something to travel with me around the house for when I stitch and need a place to drop my orts temporarily until they find refuge in the ORTS jar. We also got a tote bag too and as a stitcher you know we can’t have too many totes…well, mom has too many totes but that’s another story for another time.

Lastly, my mother was kind enough (as always) to purchase Susan’s Sweet Sarah Doll for me. I love, love, love this prim doll. Inside the bag is a kit to stitch “Sarah” an apron that says I Love Cross Stitch, a chart to make a teeny-tiny biscornu for Sarah to hold, along with a tiny pair of golden scissors. I can’t wait to stitch this little piece. I fell in love with the reproduction fabric of the bag and then the doll's dress. So sweet, I must say!

I had such a nice time. The lunch and desserts were d-lish. Afterwards a lot of us traveled over to the LNS to see what else we could get our hands on. I bought a few more project bags and some Piecemakers. While at the class, my friend Sally had a bag full of books that she thought I would enjoy. We’re not talking just a couple of books. I’m talking like 30 books…TO KEEP!!! I started reading The Rosewood Casket by Sharyn McCrumb this morning. Such a great time, I had. And then I went home…with a headache.

Winter Love by SamSarah – I love how the scarf flows into the word LOVE. It’s finally taking more of a shape now. I hope I can get this finished next week. My mom came up with a good plan of switching JCS ornament years. This is from 2007 and next ornament will come from the 2008 issue. We belong to a club where we select so many ornaments and then we receive the kitted materials throughout the following year.

I made very little progress on Friday’s rotation project which is my Seahorse Scissor Fob from The Heart’s Content. It’s difficult to see the progress bc of it being over one, but I can show more next week.

Friday afternoon a severe thunderstorm came through. It blew our neighbor’s tree over and thankfully into his own yard. If it had fallen in our yard it would have hit our house and that would have been Jose’s bedroom at risk. Hail accompanied this storm, as well as very strong winds. I got the camera out to capture Mother Nature’s drama, so sorry the photos are a little blurry. The last image is a video of the hail hitting our patio roof. It was extremely loud ~ ear piercing.

Neighbor's tree down, but it took out our fence.

some flooding

hail

I'm off to start stitching on my Susan tin piece. Talk soon!